Letters

Lifeboats are a labour of love

I would like to set the record straight over the ‘Tale of two Lifeboats’ (PBO November 2019). The Priscilla MacBean was a wreck and Dee Day and Tush did a great job saving this boat. However the Cyril & Lilian Bishop was partially restored when I sold her back to Hastings.

You published the photo of her as Lindy Lou, however when she arrived at my yard she was ten times worse than that photo, having been sunk for five years with every tide washing in and out of her. The superstructure had collapsed and she had about six tons of mud inside her.

I’m not in anyway trying to put down what Dee Day and Tush have achieved, there was still an enormous amount to be done and they’ve done a great job, but I put well over 1,500 hours in to restoration work before selling her to the